Boskone 49

Fires of Heaven by Daniel Dos Santos

Vacations at my house are practically non-existent. It’s not a bad thing, because we don’t have the feeling that we need to escape from our ‘regular’ life into a more relaxed one for a week or two. When I do go away, it’s more of a working vacation – chaperoning scout camp, for example. I think I don’t do well on vacations, because last year I managed to have the other five people in my home (husband and all 4 kids) away at various scout camps all on the same week. My plan was to do whatever I wanted and pick a big project that would be too difficult to do with four kids skulking about. I sank into a major funk and instead of doing amazing things I watched bad TV and missed my family.

My most recent time away was this past weekend. Everyone but my eldest son attended Boskone. Ben felt his time would be better spent playing video games and watching TV at home, and as he’s just shy of 16, we let him. The other three kids had a varying amount of fun, but I think they’d all agree it was better than hanging out at home with their parents and doing their chores. Sort of a kid’s version of ‘it’s better than a knife in the eye’.

Me? I love Boskone. This was my eighth year attending – but it seems like I’ve been going forever. One caveat: I’m not fond of the hotel, its scratchy sheets, its location or the lack of reasonably priced food in the area. We wind up getting a lot of food delivered to the hotel which my husband completely takes care of. And now might be a good time to mention that this is no vacation for him – he wrangles the kids, makes sure they eat something approaching nutritious at mealtimes and when he has a free moment or two he likes to spend it with me, listening to Spec Fic writers. Without his help, I’d have to go alone, and you already know what I’m like when I’m completely without family.

Rather than tell you everything about each panel I went to, I’m going to give you the best line from each one.

How to Build a Genius: Cat Valente prefers broken to whole geniuses because it’s easier to be emotionally invested in a not perfect person. I completely agree.

Winter is Here – How Game of Thrones Plays on TV: Teresa Nielsen Hayden says good writing is the best special effect.

Why I Love/Hate Heinlein: Why do people re-read Heinlein despite some obvious flaws? His future was optimistic and you come away with the feeling that you can make the future that good. I love Heinlein because he was the first Science Fiction I’d ever read. So I love him in the way you always have a soft spot for your high school sweetheart.

Occupy SF: The Corporation in Speculative Fiction: The panel discussed the role of the sociopath in the modern workplace (scary!) where they are the most successful because they are willing to do whatever is necessary. My husband has an excellent quote about this:

SF/F/H as a Mirror on Society: Spec Fic writers treat the things we are afraid of in a more distancing way so we can deal with it. Examples include: torture on BSG (new series), what happens when the bad guys win (Game of Thrones).

The Writing of Short Fiction: Jim Kelly determines how long a piece should be based on how long he wants to spend on the particular idea. Interesting – I never thought to look at story length this way.

How Not to Produce an eBook: Neil Clarke says friends don’t let friends use Smashwords for formatting.

Send in the Clones: The Near Future of Bioscience: Our next plague will likely come from viral diversity – areas that human populations are moving into for the first time where viruses will jump species.

Certainty is for Wimps: Unstable Reality in SF: People feel like we cannot believe what we hear/read/see right now in the news. This holds true for all political views – no one feels secure – so this fear is bleeding into the arts.

My Top Ten Tips for the Prospective Author: John Scalzi says the idea isn’t to write every day (although that’s not bad), but to perpetually think ‘now is a good time to write’.

How Not to Lose the Plot: If a cellphone call, a reasonable conversation or a machine gun can fix the problem, your plot is in trouble. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve yelled at my TV for stupid plots like that.

How Bad Can a Hero Be?: A harsh woman, even if heroic, is viewed more as a villain unless she had been abused or broken and is seeking vengeance – Lisbeth Salander from the Steig Larsson novels, for example.

Surviving the Apocalypse: My favorite panel of the weekend – Myke Cole kept it light and fun and after a weekend of heavy thinking that’s what my brain needed. Jim Macdonald made an excellent point – if there’s an apocalypse, try to wait for 6 months before joining the military because at that point there will be veterans who will be more equipped to keep you alive.  Also, blades don’t need to be reloaded. Honestly, it was a fun panel.

Finally, I’d like to thank all writers, musicians, magicians and artists (not to mention the people in charge) for stopping by the Dragonslair and entertaining the kids. It’s easy for the younger kids to drop off most people’s radar and I’m grateful every year that Boskone entertains the kids as well as the adults.